A Study of the Radiation Tolerance and Timing Properties of 3D Diamond Detectors

We present a study on the radiation tolerance and timing properties of 3D diamond detectors fabricated by laser engineering on synthetic Chemical Vapor Deposited (CVD) plates. We evaluated the radiation hardness of the sensors using Charge Collection Efficiency (CCE) measurements after neutron fluences up to 10(16) n/cm(2) (1 MeV equivalent.) The radiation tolerance is significantly higher when moving from standard planar architecture to 3D architecture and increases with the increasing density of the columnar electrodes. Also, the maximum applicable bias voltage before electric breakdown increases significantly after high fluence irradiation, possibly due to the passivation of defects. The experimental analysis allowed us to predict the performance of the devices at higher fluence levels, well in the range of 10(16) n/cm(2). We summarize the recent results on the time resolution measurements of our test sensors after optimization of the laser fabrication process and outline future activity in developing pixel tracking systems for high luminosity particle physics experiments.